Cup4Cupcake

A few weeks ago I took a stab at making risen gluten free doughnuts with mixed results.  The dough was not as light as I had wanted, but they were still tasty.  I really wanted to try again, but I decided that I wanted to try a different recipe this time around.  

As a pseudo tangent, in the world of gluten free baking everyone seems to have their own flour mix as there is no simple non-wheat flour that can be solely substituted for wheat flour.  The texture and overall flavor of the gluten free flour mix depends on what other grain/nut flours are used, which I learned the hard way.  Some people say to use Bob's Red Mill GF flour, but it contains garbanzo flour, so whatever you make will have a pea taste as I discovered.  I started using Pamela's GF all purpose flour mix by chance and I was really happy with it, as it's pretty bland so no funky tastes or textures are imparted into the product.  However, at $5 for 16 ounces, it's pricey...so I decided to make my own mix and tried to emulate Pamela's.  Overall I had a pretty successful mix that lends well to pretty much anything, until I tried making the risen donuts.

So, this ties into my recipe hunt.  Almost every recipe says to use some different store bought mix or to make your own mix of X flours.  Then I came across a recipe that mentioned using Cup4Cup flour - a mix developed out of the French Laundry, but at $25 for 3 pounds...no thank you.  However, someone had made their own version of it and I was intrigued.  Instead of using 10 different flours and starches, it was comprised of a fraction of them and it was a much lighter/softer flour.  I figured I'd give it a shot, but rather than make doughnuts with it, I wanted to try cake...well, more specifically, cupcakes.

I love the yellow butter cake recipe I have, it's got a great flavor and texture.  It starts out with creaming soft butter and sugar, and then the eggs are added one at a time.

 Let it mix at a medium high speed for a few minutes, until it's lighter and a pale yellow color.  Add in the vanilla.

Add in the dry ingredients, alternating with milk, and ending with the dry ingredients.

For cupcakes, fill up the wells 2/3 full and bake for 15-20 minutes. 

While the cupcakes cool, prepare the topping.  I went with an italian buttercream.  Put the egg whites in a mixing bowl, and in a small saucepan combine sugar and water.

Heat the sugar mixture to the softball stage.  Meanwhile. begin whipping the egg whites, adding sugar.

When the syrup gets to the right temperature, slowly pour it into the egg whites.  Increase speed to medium high and let it go for 10 minutes, or until the bottom of the bowl has cooled to room temp.  Add in the butter in pieces and whatever flavoring is desired.

For these cupcakes, I decided to do a lemon cream icing.  I left half the buttercream as vanilla and added lemon and yellow food color to the other half.  I then put both into a piping bag, with a large star tip and went to town.

The cake itself seemed a bit lighter to me, and definitely softer.  It also lacked the grainy texture that I've had in other flour mixes..so now I have to try making doughnuts with it.